Sanaa , Yemen -LRB- CNN -RRB- Al Qaeda fighters attacked a prison in the coastal Yemeni city of Al Mukallah early Thursday , freeing at least 270 prisoners , a third of whom have al Qaeda links , a senior Defense Ministry official has told CNN .

Khaled Batarfi , a senior al Qaeda figure , was among the escapees , officials said .

Dozens of attackers took control of government buildings , including the city 's Central Prison , Central Bank and radio station during the assault early Thursday , according to officials .

Government troops arrived early Thursday and clashed with the al Qaeda fighters , and most of the militants fled , the officials said .

Last month , hundreds of inmates escaped from Al Mansoorah Central Prison in Aden after clashes between Shiite Houthi rebels and forces loyal to ousted Sunni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi .

Yemen has been descending into chaos in the weeks since Shiite Houthi rebels removed Hadi , a Sunni , from power .

The sectarian nature of the conflict is drawing in regional rivals Saudi Arabia , which is predominately Sunni -- and is the country to which Hadi ultimately fled -- and Iran , which is predominately Shiite and supports the Houthi rebels .

Because of that , the conflict in Yemen risks becoming a proxy war in the struggle between the Iranians and the Saudis for preeminence in the Middle East . The Saudis have conducted airstrikes against the Houthi rebels and could send in ground troops .

But little is simple in the Middle East . And while the conflict between the Houthis and forces loyal to Hadi rages in the western part of the country , where it has caused hundreds of civilian deaths , al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula , or AQAP , controls parts of eastern Yemen .

AQAP is considered one of the most ruthless branches of the terrorist organization .

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Al Qaeda fighters attack a prison and other government buildings , freeing many prisoners

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Government troops clash with the fighters , most of whom flee

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Yemen is descending into chaos as a Shia-Sunni conflict draws in regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran